Luke 17:5-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
October 6, 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever wished you had more faith when you prayed for a loved one who was sick and the result was the person didn\u2019t get well? Have you ever prayed for an opportunity for a promotion or a new job and wondered about how much faith you have left when none of these opportunities came? Have you wished for more faith after working on redistributing resources and food to the hungry and the poor only to see the line of people who need food gets longer every week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t see in the Bible many occasions when the disciples ask something of Jesus. But in today\u2019s Scripture, the disciples pled for an increase of faith. By this point in Jesus\u2019 ministry, the disciples have witnessed a number of strange and inexplicable wonders. They have heard much of Jesus\u2019 teaching. Their plea was to have the capacity to believe or to know what to make of the events that have come their way in Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus has spoken to them in parables, sketching for them the nature of the Kingdom of God. But many of his stories have been confusing and incomprehensible. Jesus has miraculously healed some people, and has silenced the wind and waves of a stormy sea. How can things like that happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIncrease our faith!\u201d the disciples blurt forth. We wonder if the disciples have been suppressing this for a long time. Have they been witnessing Jesus\u2019 signs and wonders and have held back on a public admission of their inner doubts? At last they can hold back no longer; at last they admit their cluelessness. Haven\u2019t we been in situations like this as well when life itself just doesn\u2019t make sense anymore?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIncrease our faith!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dutiful Service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke 17 is one of five places in the gospels where Jesus makes a comment about a mustard seed. Three of those references are essentially the same as three of the gospel writers\u2019 record of Jesus telling how the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed (Mt. 13:31-32; Mk. 4:30-32; Lk. 13:18-19). One of the other references to a mustard seed is when Jesus explains to the disciples why they were unable to cure a demon-possessed boy (Mt.17:20). The final mustard-seed reference is in our text when Jesus responds to the disciples\u2019 request that he increase their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of how small mustard seeds are, we tend to hear this repeated metaphor as a comment on the quantity of faith one possesses. Yet it is unlikely that\u2019s the intended meaning in any of these usages, and it\u2019s especially not the case here where Jesus responds to the disciples\u2019 request for more faith. In this setting, where the comment appears right before Jesus\u2019 parable of the dutiful servants, the point seems to be that the disciples\u2019 need is not for more faith, but for redirecting what faith they have toward dutiful service to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The parable has to do with a master\u2019s slave or servant who labors long hours in the field and then is expected to fix dinner for his master and only after that before having any food himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Jesus was telling this parable today, he\u2019d probably substitute \u201cyour employee\u201d for \u201cyour slave or servant,\u201d but the point would be the same: Does your servant deserve thanks for doing what\u2019s expected of him? Does your employee deserve thanks for giving you eight hours of work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the parable, the implied answer is clearly \u201cNo,\u201d and Jesus then turns the story on the disciples who are seeking more faith, saying, \u201cSo you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, \u201cWe are unworthy servant, we have only done our duty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cunworthy\u201d or \u201cworthless\u201d implies that no matter how much we do in service to God, we are only doing what is expected and that it\u2019s impossible to do more than what\u2019s expected of us. We can never put God in our debt. In fact, when it comes to serving God, Jesus is, in effect, telling us to forget the old idea of having \u201cstars in our crown\u201d\u2014special recognition or reward in heaven. While it is true that there are a few things, such as enduring persecution and doing works of charity in secret when Jesus does mention divine reward, Jesus is telling us that our discipleship is just expected of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does the servant get special thanks for doing what\u2019s expected of him or her? When you have done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, \u201cThe work is done. What we were told to do, we did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this sounds like a thankless job to be Jesus\u2019 disciples, there are two things we can say about that. First, while the parable tells us not to expect divine thanks for serving God, there are human thanks that come to us nonetheless. It may not happen often, and we\u2019ve all had occasions when those we help appear to be ungrateful. But there are times when someone says \u201cThank you\u201d in such a heartfelt way that it buoys your spirit. When we see someone lifted from trouble because of our efforts and we experience elation, or when some young person tells us that an offhand remark we made in a Sunday school lesson helped her or him make a positive career choice, we are understandably uplifted and encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, it\u2019s unlikely that we can be faithful in our Christian duty without receiving at least occasional expressions of appreciation. We need that from each other. But in Jesus\u2019 parable, however, he stresses that we should serve God because it\u2019s the right thing to do, not because we hunger for divine reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, doing the right thing without being praised or rewarded brings a kind of satisfaction of its own. It\u2019s like when I sweep the sidewalk on Sunday mornings. My reward is that I really like the church and its surroundings to be clean and neat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a story of a man and a woman who had some friction during their early years of marriage. His assumption was that she would do all the housework, despite the fact that they both had fulltime jobs outside the home. After several confrontations about this, he finally realized that he\u2019d been unreasonable, and so he decided to help out. The first thing he tackled was the kitchen; he did all the dishes, wiped the counters and swept and mopped the floor. Then he eagerly waited for her to come home, expecting that she would lavish him with praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she did come home, she seemed to notice the work in the kitchen but said nothing. Finally, the man could stand it no longer, and he blurted, \u201cDid you see I cleaned up he kitchen?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He waited, but she had nothing more to say. So he said, \u201cWell, don\u2019t you appreciate it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m glad you\u2019ve done the work, she said, \u201cbut we both live in the house and keeping it clean is just a part of our responsibilities. \u201cI\u2019ve never been thanked for all the housework I\u2019ve done, and I don\u2019t expect to be. Why should either of us be thanked for doing what\u2019s necessary to live decently?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It took some readjustment of the man\u2019s thinking, but he got the point, enough so that he kept doing a share of the housecleaning. And, even though he never particularly enjoyed the work, he began to take a certain satisfaction in keeping the home reasonably tidy. Likewise, there can be a certain satisfaction in serving God even when no thanks seems to be forthcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trustees would like to remind you at this point of the sermon that we have an All-Church Clean-Up Day on Saturday, October 26th<\/sup>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Dutiful Work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is linking \u201cfaith\u201d and \u201cduty\u201d in this Scripture. Those who faithfully do their duty, without much fuss or fanfare, are those who have enough faith to do wonders. What the slaves or servants do in the parable isn\u2019t that wonderful\u2014they simply performed menial tasks for the master. But perhaps that\u2019s the whole point about faith. Those who have faith in Jesus are simply \u201cunworthy servants who have done our duty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By answering the disciples\u2019 plead to increase their faith, Jesus is telling them that faith is not some intellectual achievement or something to measure quantitatively but rather a matter of humbly, daily, mundanely attempting to obey Jesus and follow Jesus, doing your bit part for Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This may be to help at a soup kitchen for the poor or working at the food bank or cooking dinner for your family or doing house chores to share the load. When we do these duties faithfully, we would have enough faith to do wonders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we come to church weekly to participate in the routine of worship, it forces us to worship the real God every seven days whether we feel it or not. The church keeps us close to the wellsprings of the faith even when we have been negligent to avail ourselves of those restorative waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After today\u2019s Membership Meeting, you\u2019ll be invited again to prayerfully make a pledge to the ministry of this church. You might say, \u201cIncrease my faith\u201d so that I may increase my pledge. But doing this simple annual act of giving back to what belongs to God in the first place leads us to have a dutiful faith. In doing the work of faithful ministry, in just keeping at it, we discover that God is making us more faithful, despite our lack of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The parable Jesus told invites us to see ourselves in relation to God as servants\u2014in our work, in our church role, in our leisure, in the unexpected things that come to us and require us to respond. This image of a servant steers us away from the notion of entitlement and reminds us that we don\u2019t earn our way into the kingdom of God but are granted entrance because of God\u2019s graciousness to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not the quantity of our faith that matters, but putting what faith we have into service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s an old sermon illustration about a man seeking entrance to heaven based on his good works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man came to the Pearly Gates and asked Saint Peter for admission. \u201cOn what basis? Saint Peter asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, \u201c said the man, \u201cI worked most recently in the world of financial management, and I labored hard to make even that realm a place where God\u2019s will was done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d replied Saint Peter, \u201cbut, of course, we expected that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUh\u2026well, earlier I worked several years at low wages in the mission field. I tackled the cause of poverty and injustice in the Third World. I worked directly with children, families and their communities. I even helped some people escape from human traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know, but that all needed to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut look here\u2026I\u2019ve worked hard to be faithful ever since God called me. I\u2019ve kept my hand on the plow as it were and not looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd your point is?\u201d said Saint Peter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man, now clearly disconcerted, stammered, \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019ve got! There\u2019s nothing more but the grace of God!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly,\u201d said Saint Peter, opening the gate. \u201cC\u2019mon in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have to be great practitioners of belief; we must only be dutiful servants. We don\u2019t have to have a huge ability to believe; we simply must be those who know that Jesus gives us a job to do and then we get to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most of us, this is good news indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Jesus, we confess that there is so much we do not understand about you, so much you did, so much you said, that we can neither understand or explain. Give us the grace in our daily lives to not only understand but rather to be obedient and committed to dutiful work. Help us to be content to work with you rather than to figure you out. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luke 17:5-10 October 6, 2013 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. Have you ever wished you had more faith when you